NCAA Basketball Open Thread

Michigan State is up 26-22 at Northwestern at halftime with Payne out. Michigan women's basketball is currently up 36-26 at #22 Purdue. Tonight Purdue plays at Illinois in the only other Big Ten matchup of the day. Both Big Ten games are on BTN.

The MSU / Northwestern game is sort of interesting in that MSU came into this favored by many possessions, but here they are up by not a whole lot to a Northwestern team current sporting an effective FG% of about 37% right now. Basketball is a funny game sometimes, especially when the only stat a team like Northwestern can brag about is their free throw rate (i.e., how often they typically get to the line).

"Funny isn't it, how naughty dentists always make that one fatal mistake."

Yeah they'll play like complete garbage and win by ten or eleven by pulling away in the last five minutes. That's MSU basketball. Unless of course it against us, then they are like enraged psycho 's slapping the court and sweating their PED's out in a fit of blind rage.

Also, Trey Burke is on ESPN playing the elite San Antonio Spurs. For those of us who don't live in Utah's market nor have NBA Tv/League Pass this will be the first time seeing Trey play in a game since the national championship game.

They generally give COY to guys with a winning record on the season and N'W probably won't come close to that. I would think Fran McCaffery is the favorite, with Bo Ryan behind him and Beilein would be a candidate if Michigan goes 12-6 or better in the conference w/o McGary.

For a' that, an' a' that,
Our toils obscure an' a' that,
The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The man's the gowd for a' that.

Tonight he spent a timeout screaming at Valentine for getting hammered on a drive to the basket in transition that was an egregious no-call. Izzo singled him out multiple other times, and then the icing on the cake was when Valentine tried to give the ball to the offical at the end of the game a couple seconds early and Izzo almost lost his shit. I swear stuff like this happens every game and the unintentional comedy of the toxic Izzo - Valentine relationship is the only way I can stomach to watch MSU basketball.

"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -H.L. Mencken

I am glad I don't have to listen to Beilein whine about our injury situation. Just imagine if Gary Harris or Adrien Payne were out for the season like McGary. Quit crying Izzo. Nobody feels sorry for you and your team.

I live about halfway between A2 and EL so I take in the occasional Spartan basketball game. When I was at the MSU-Minny game on Saturday Valentine had a terrible sequence that included a pass out of bounds and a foul on the other end because of bad defense. Izzo pulled him off the court and when Valentine came off Izzo tore him up on his way to the bench. Once Izzo had the play set as Minny shot free throws Izzo had an assistant run the team while Izzo sat next to Valentine with a dry erase board and coached him. They sat there for about 4 MSU possesions, about 3-4 minutes going over plays. After that they laughed an he put Valentine right back in. So I'm guessing they have a unique relationship where it's not as toxic as it looks.